In Wolof, focus is marked by specific verbal inflections depending on the syntactic status of the focused constituent (subject, verb or complement). Moreover, each focus marking inflection displays various pragmatic functions which are here accounted for by a regular mechanism combining (1) a unitary definition of focus with (2) various discursive linkages. This new definition of focus involving an internal landmark explains the aspectual values of the Wolof focus markers and their uses in negative and nominal predicates. More generally, this model can account for the semantic variation of a same focused sentence thanks to the various interplays between internal and discursive landmarks.
Le verbe wolof ou la grammaticalisation du focus